Below the Noise Floor

FT8 has transformed HF amateur radio over the last decade - it is now the dominant mode on most bands. This episode explains what FT8 actually is, how it works, what it looks like on the waterfall, and how to set up WSJT-X alongside AetherSDR for decode-only reception. Plus WSPR, PSKReporter, and how to use digital mode decodes as a real-time propagation map.

SSB voice is the dominant mode for human conversation on HF, but it sounds wrong until you tune it correctly. This episode covers upper and lower sideband, why the convention exists, how to tune a voice signal by ear, and how to use AetherSDR's mode and bandwidth controls to receive voice clearly.

Not all HF bands behave the same way. Some come alive at night, some peak at noon, some only open during high solar activity. This episode is a practical band-by-band tour of the amateur HF spectrum - what each band is used for, when to listen, and where to point your attention when you are just getting started.

The waterfall is the defining feature of software-defined radio. This episode covers how to read it: what strong and weak signals look like, how to tell a voice signal from a digital mode from a CW transmission just by its shape, and how to use the waterfall as a real-time window into propagation conditions.

The waterfall is the defining feature of software-defined radio. This episode covers how to read it: what strong and weak signals look like, how to tell a voice signal from a digital mode from a CW transmission just by its shape, and how to use the waterfall as a real-time window into propagation conditions.

AetherSDR is a free, open-source client for FlexRadio transceivers that runs natively on Linux, macOS, and Windows. This episode covers what it is, why it exists, how to download and install it on each platform, and how to start it up and connect it to your radio for the first time.

AetherSDR is a free, open-source client for FlexRadio transceivers that runs natively on Linux, macOS, and Windows. This episode covers what it is, why it exists, how to download and install it on each platform, and how to start it up and connect it to your radio for the first time.

A dramatized audio mystery. It starts the way these things always start. Late, alone, tuning the dead grass at the bottom of the band where nothing is supposed to live. Then the static stops in one narrow place, and starts counting. The carrier does not drift. It does not move with the stars. It holds station against the Sun and the planets both, from the one place in the solar system a thing can sit forever and never spend a drop of fuel. The payload is a wall, packed so tight it reads as pure noise, unbreakable. But the operator does not need to break it. He reads the headers. The addresses, the hop counts, the timestamps. And the envelope tells him everything: the size of the network, the reach of it, and the one universal clock its builders used to stamp the very first packet. The answer to how old they are is not the scary part. The scary part is what arrives on the second night. Best experienced with headphones, in the dark, with the volume up. Contains: one carrier, one operator, and a question with an answer none of us were ready for. A Below the Noise Floor dramatized special.

High frequency radio has been talking to the other side of the planet for over a hundred years. No servers, no cell towers, no infrastructure - just a transmitter, an antenna, and the ionosphere. This first episode covers what HF radio actually is, how skywave propagation works, the amateur license structure, and how software-defined radio has changed what is possible. Plus: a preview of the AetherSDR series coming next.